Border control processes relating to the passage of individuals across national borders require high levels of accuracy and security. They are typically labour intensive, involving a manual check of credentials, and involve multiple computer systems. For air travel, there will typically be checks both by the airline at bag drop and at the gate, checks by national authorities between groundside and airside, with personal information being provided before boarding cards are issued to provide further traveller credentials.
These processes are currently automated to some degree. A traveller's boarding pass will typically comprise a 2-D barcode that provides user and travel details and which is scanned at bag drop, entry into security and at the gate. The boarding pass may be provided on a user's phone, rather than as a paper document. In addition to scanning of the barcode, manual checks are carried out for document irregularities and to confirm that there is a match between the traveller and his or her travel documents.
Despite this partial automation, travel checks are time consuming and reliant on manual checks to prevent errors and deliberate attempts to subvert the systems. This is particularly true of pre-flight processes such as bag drop and boarding gate entry, which require routine checks which can lead to significant queues and delays. It would be desirable to improve these processes for the benefit of the traveller, the airline and the border management service.